Wilmington, N.C.- My name is Doug Wahl. I work in the office for Just For Buyers Realty.
I grew up in Michigan where we had blizzards.
My first job out of college of was in Oklahoma where they have something called the 5th season- tornado season. In my two years in Oklahoma, I probably was forced to take cover at least a dozen times, typically in a bathtub with a mattress on top of you.
The next stop was in New Mexico where summers meant wildfires. I’ve watched as people sifted through the rubble and ash of their former homes looking for anything they could salvage.
If my career would have taken me further west, I potentially could have endured mud slides and earthquakes.
Instead I went back east, first to Louisiana and then here to North Carolina, where in 20 years I have survived several tropical storms and hurricanes including Katrina and Florence.
After two decades living on the coast I am by no means an expert, but I know far more now than I ever did before. Here are some things I’ve learned about hurricanes.
1) Most of the Storms are Forgettable
Every tropical storm and hurricane that threatened my community had a name, but I only remember maybe four of them. The rest escape me now. They really weren’t that significant. We didn’t evacuate for these forgotten storms, we rode them out. You start hearing the buzz and concern when a level two or three hurricane is approaching. That’s when people start thinking about evacuating. When it reaches a level of four or five storm virtually everyone is making a plan to get out.
2) Three Main Dangers
Hurricanes cause their destruction in one of three ways. The storm surge is the damage caused by the actual wave hitting the beach. Flooding is also a problem close to the beach, but it impacts any low-lying area especially homes with a creek or tributary in their backyard. For most folks on the coast, wind is the big issue.
In a tropical storm winds can reach speeds of 79 miles an hour. That’s strong enough to damage roofs, with shingles flying off and vinyl siding and gutters being torn apart. In a category 1 storm wind speeds can reach 95 miles an hour causing large branches to snap off and shallowly rooted trees may be toppled with extensive damage to power lines and poles. A category 5 storm is anything over 157 miles destroying a high percentage of framed homes, with total roof failure and walls collapsing.
3) Evacuations: Don’t wait for the last moment, but don’t go too early either.
One of the most stressful parts of a high powered storm is not deciding whether to evacuate, but figuring out what direction to go. In the days leading up to landfall coastal residents will stare at the hourly updates hoping for clarity. Roughly three days before Hurricane Florence rushed ashore, the cone of uncertainly stretched from northern Georgia to southern Virginia. So do you evacuate north or to the south? The storm could still go in either direction. Going inland seems like it would make sense but storm after storm we see flooding in the central part of the state… which means people who went west can’t get back home even if their town was unscathed. We’ve known folks who were stranded for a couple of weeks before they could get back home.
4) Evacuations are Expensive
Getting out of town is not cheap. With everyone else trying to evacuate you are competing for hotel rooms, fuel at the gas station and even food at the grocery store. Because of supply and demand all of these tend to be a little more expensive than they were before the storm (even though federal law prohibits price gouging during an emergency.) Few people actually budget for an evacuation so folks are either putting the expense on a credit card or dipping into savings.
5) The Slow Moving Storm is the Scariest of them All
While most people focus on the category and strength of a storm, in many cases the speed it travels may be the most important factor. A slow moving storm, even if it has lower wind speeds, can cause far more damage than something moving at a quick pace. The big fear is a storm coming ashore and then just parking itself over one area for several days. The massive amounts of rain will create flooding even in areas outside the flood zone. Ask anyone on the coast their worst storm and chances are it will be one that just crawled along at a very slow speed.
It is Always Something
Everyone has a different tolerance level for risk. Obviously, I am biased on the issue. Hurricanes didn’t prevent me from coming here. And as we discussed you can’t escape severe weather. No matter where you live, every region has its own issues. Frankly, in my personal opinion, tornadoes were the worst because they popped up with very little warning. I would definitely pause before moving back to tornado alley.
Hurricanes, by contrast, not only come with ample warning, but the vast majority of the storms you will see really won’t make a difference. In the 20 years I’ve lived along the coast only two storms really scared me, and in both cases by home came through unscathed.
According to predictions from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) 2023 will have anywhere from a dozen to 17 named storms. That’s an average year. Some of those storms will never make landfall, just float out to sea, while others will hit with very little wind speed and impact. Every year though produces two or three major storms. They’re coming! We know they are! We certainly hope their impact won’t be felt on the Carolina Coast, but from now until the end of November we’ll watch the weather reports and gauge what’s happening in the Atlantic.